What do professional skydivers and successful project managers have in common?

They both identify, assess, and plan for risks.

Skydivers look at the conditions, equipment, and capabilities before, during, and after they jump out of planes. Project managers look at the conditions, equipment, and capabilities before, during, and after projects.

Why do they do that?

“To stay on top of potential issues that could derail intended outcomes” – Project Manager, Guide to Using a Risk Register

How do they do that?

Well, I don’t know how skydivers do it, but to identify, assess, and plan for risks, a good project manager is never far away from a risk register.

But, when I discovered that 81% of organizations feel their risk registers are ineffective at identifying and planning for potential risks, and 30% of projects fail as a direct result, I felt the need to write this Process Street post about how to create one.

So, listen up as we go through the following:

• What is a risk register & what does one contain?
• Why projects won’t survive without a risk register
• The 3 biggest mistakes to avoid when creating a risk register
• How to use Process Street to create a risk register

If you’re in a hurry, grab this free Risk Register Process Checklist now, and catch up with the what, why, and how later.

Got your parachute? Ready, set… Geeeeronimoooooo…

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I have a proposal for you.

I can build you a house, complete with walls, windows, doors, and a roof for $350,000.

Do we have a deal?

No. I didn’t think so!

To make a decision like this, you need cold hard facts. You need details, clarity, and proof! You need budgets, breakdowns, and solid guarantees.

That’s exactly how a project stakeholder feels when they receive your project proposal, and to further complicate things, calculating an average proposal win rate is next to impossible.

Project stakeholders will, on average, receive around 50 proposals a week. To choose you out of this huge pile, they need clarity, details, specifics, lateral thinking, and a whole heap of persuasion.

You need to learn the art of how to write a project proposal, to stand any chance of winning their investment, and increasing your proposal success rate.

So, join me in this Process Street post where we will take the following lessons in how to write a project proposal:

• Lesson #1: What a project proposal is
• Lesson #2: What a project proposal reviewer is really looking for
• Lesson #3: The surefire way to succeed with your project proposal
• Lesson #4: The 4 types of project proposal & how to create them (with tips & templates)
• Lesson #5: A little more about Process Street and how it can help your project proposals

If you’re in a hurry, grab this Project Proposal Template Checklist, and catch up with the class later:

Click here to access the Project Proposal Template Checklist!

Now, butts on seats, no talking, and let the class begin!
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Tom: “I need a new warm, down jacket for my next trip.”

Me: “Great, I would opt for Patagonia or Arcteryx.”

Why did I recommend these brands to Tom and these brands only?

It is due to brand trust. I know these brands deliver exactly what I want consistently.

As consumers, Tom and I are Patagonia and Arcteryx stakeholders. We have expectations these two outdoor brands need to satisfy to retain our custom. These expectations translate into requirements. In this scenario, our requirements were:

• Value for money
• Robust, long-lasting products
• Functional products
• Products that deliver on their intention

Patagonia and Arcteryx meet the business requirements for their products, satisfying stakeholder and business needs. And so the brands thrive with a good reputation, brand identity, leading to a healthy bottom-line and company success.

Defining the business requirements of a new product, project, system, service, or software is vital. Without defined requirements, there is an absence of clear goals, focus, and progression measures. This doesn’t bode well for success.

For instance, a study by Pulse of the Profession reported 37% of software projects failed due to poorly defined requirements.

Because we don’t want you to fail, in this Process Street article we explain exactly what business requirements are and how you can identify them for your business or line of work. We explain the benefits that come from correctly defining business requirements. We then clarify how you can document business requirements in a Business Requirements Document using Process Street’s Business Requirements Template.

Sounds like the article you need to read to succeed…right?

As such, let’s jump to it. Click on the relevant subheaders below to hop-across to that section. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say:

• Business Requirements Template
• What are business requirements, and why you should care
• How to create a Business Requirements Document
• Manage change appropriately via a change management model
• New to Process Street? A quick tour to help you get started

Correctly defining the business requirements for your organization or line of work starts here. Keep reading and learn how to consistently meet the needs of your stakeholders.

Ready?
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This is a guest post written by Ashley Ferro, a freelance content writer & copywriter specializing in SEO content marketing.

There’s nothing more frustrating to a project manager than witnessing the slow, painful death of a healthy project to the beast known as scope creep. When last minute changes transform their straightforward, A-to-B project plan into a sprawling mess of up-ended sprint plans and gold-plated feature requests, branching out in all directions with no concern for time or resources.

In one extreme example, the head contractor for the extension of a city library ended up actually suing their client in a scope-creep induced rage, claiming that their almost 55-week delay was a direct result of the large number of last minute changes.

In order for a project to be successfully completed on time, the project manager and their team need to agree on a clearly defined project scope before getting started.

However, life isn’t so straight forward and changes to the project will inevitably need to happen.

But additional problems can arise if the changes aren’t dealt with properly.

Scope creep can quietly sneak its way into your project and set your team down an unproductive and self-destructive path, wasting your company’s resources, missing deadlines, weakening team communication and, ultimately, ruining any chance of your project’s success.

So what can you do to avoid this fate, and overcome scope creep once and for all?

In this Process Street article, we’ll be covering everything you need to know scope creep–from what (and who) causes it, to how to manage it, even in an agile environment where change is embraced.

We’ll be covering:

• What is scope creep?
• How different stakeholders can contribute to scope creep
• What are some common causes of scope creep?
• Most effective ways to manage scope creep
• What we can learn from Agile to prevent scope creep?
• Using Process Street to avoid scope creep
• Additional project management resources

If, however, you’re struggling with planning your own projects and want a quick solution, grab our free Project Request Form Template below!

So, let’s get started with the basics!

The excitement around a new project is intoxicating.

After all, it’s an opportunity for your team to collaborate and put their well-honed skills to use.

But with important projects, excitement can easily turn into dread. Especially considering that 70% of organizations have failed one or more of their projects in the last 12 months, with a lack of clear goals being the main issue.

So how can everyone involved know what’s expected of them? What deliverables they must bring to the table? How their actions figure into the bigger picture? And how can you, the project manager, break the project down into manageable segments?

While The Beatles professed that “love is all you need”, what’s going to be more useful in this scenario is a work breakdown structure.

That’s why, in this Process Street post, you’ll learn what the work breakdown structure is, why it’s so useful, different examples of it, and tips on how to create a work breakdown structure yourself. To boot, you’ll even get your hands on our easy-to-use Work Breakdown Structure Template!

Read through the following sections to get clued-up:

• What is a work breakdown structure (WBS)?
• Work breakdown structure examples
• Why a work breakdown structure is useful
• How to create a work breakdown structure
• Use Process Street for completing projects and processes alike!

Or, if you’re eager to get the template already, here it is:

Click here to get the Work Breakdown Structure Template!

Let’s break it down.

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Product roadmaps are an essential part of understanding how to align your product to a long-term vision for product-market fit. They are also one of the key deliverables for product managers and are useful to almost all teams and stakeholders.

What the product roadmap should provide:

• Clear overview of key launch dates and milestones
• Clearly communicate which teams are responsible for what
• Clearly communicate important deadlines and time allocation
• A beacon to align different teams to core company goals and objectives

What the roadmap shouldn’t include:

• Goals and objectives unrelated to the product
• Overload of information about specific product features and specifications for development
• Big Surprises
• Too much data without clear association with company goals or objectives

In this Process Street article, we’ll be looking at:

• What is a product roadmap?
• Planning the product roadmap
• Key elements of a product roadmap
• How to build a product roadmap
• Free product roadmap template
• Best practices for creating a product roadmap template
• Mistakes to avoid when building your roadmap
• More tools for product success

First off, here’s a template you can use to get started building your own product roadmap.

Product roadmap process

For those of you who came just for the template, here it is:

If you’re interested in the why behind this template design, and more insight into an effective product roadmap approach, read on!

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507 blog posts.

That’s how many items our team has created, edited, and published since implementing Scrumban.

Before we set up our system, we were mostly scrabbling to get items together from week-to-week, without knowing what we’d be working on next.

Now, we’re always 3 weeks ahead of our publishing calendar, have built our blog to over 130,000 subscribers, and have expanded our team by over 300%.

That’s why we here at Process Street will take you through this (practically new) method for managing your team and projects.

We’ll cover:

• The basics of Scrumban
• The pros and cons of Scrumban
• How to implement Scrumban

If you want a sneak preview of how we’ve deployed Scrumban, I’ll give you a hint. It’s got something to do with the Sprint Planning checklist below (which you can grab for free!)…

Let’s get started!
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I’ve got bad news.

Statistics show that no matter how hard you try, your project is probably going to fail.

To be a little more specific, only 2.5% of companies complete their projects 100% successfully.

“Failure is an unavoidable part of any project process” – ProjectManager, 5 Notorious Failed Projects & What We Can Learn from Them

Yet the cost of project failures is staggering. Failed IT projects alone cost the United States around $150 billion in lost revenue and productivity. And it’s frightening! Failure scares us all.

But, the good news is, failure, and how it affects you and your project’s overall success and profitability is controllable. If you can catch, or even predict, failures early enough, you can execute damage control measures and prevent them from completely derailing your project and its profitability. You can even use them to improve your project.

How can you catch or predict failures early?

By using a project tracker.

A project tracker is a snapshot of your entire project. It gives you and the project team a clear picture of how the project is performing, where the weak spots are, and which areas need the most attention.

Let me explain this concept further by taking you through the following topics in this Process Street article:

• What is a project tracker and what does it do?
• Are project trackers really necessary?
• What happens if you don’t track projects properly (with a real-life example)
• The most effective way to track projects

Let’s get going!
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If you’re chronically ill, pain medication will help but not solve the issue. Just like if you’re experiencing abnormally high customer churn, the last thing you want is to spend all your time firefighting.

You need to find the cause.

That’s exactly why root cause analysis is a vital process. It helps you to understand the causal focus and underlying issues behind your biggest business problems.

For example, Eastman Chemical‘s customer complaint numbers were cut in half after conducting a logic tree root cause analysis to pinpoint their deeper issues. Clipper Windpower saved $1 million in lost revenue by identifying the underlying causes of their turbine malfunction.

In this Process Street article, we have a root cause analysis template for you to follow. Our aim is to give you a comprehensive overview of the root cause analysis process, from a simple introduction and break down of the key principles to when and why you’d want to perform a root cause analysis.

We’ll be covering:

• Root cause analysis template
• What is root cause analysis (RCA)?
• Why conduct a root cause analysis?
• Key principles of root cause analysis
• How to conduct a root cause analysis that actually works
• Root cause analysis tips
• Using Process Street to conduct a root cause analysis

Let’s take a quick look at the root cause analysis template.
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How many proposals do you submit, on average, per month?

Five? Ten? Fifteen? …More?

And out of those, how many do you win?

Zero?… One?… Maybe two if you’re lucky?

“The U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER grant program accepted less than 10% of eligible grant applications” – CDN2, Four Types of Grant Funding

Hearing “No” after “No” after “No” is devastating, disheartening and downright depressing.

Where are you going wrong? How can you improve? What in God’s name do you need to do to get a YES?!

If you’re looking for ways to create a blinding proposal that will flatten your competitors, dazzle your prospective buyers, and result in a long-awaited YES from a panel of reviewers, you’ve come to the right place.

All you need is ten minutes and the following 12 free proposal templates:

If you don’t have ten minutes, feel free to dive straight into these winning proposal templates:

1. Bid Proposal Template Checklist
2. Business Proposal Template Checklist
3. Construction Proposal Template Checklist
4. Consulting Proposal Template Checklist
5. Contractor Proposal Template Checklist
6. Event Proposal Template Checklist
7. How to Write a Grant Checklist
8. Marketing Proposal Template Checklist
9. Project Proposal Template Checklist
10. Research Proposal Example Checklist
11. Sponsorship Proposal Template Checklist
12. Website Proposal Template Checklist

Or, if you’re curious, take a sneaky peek at the website proposal template to give you a taste of what’s to come!

These are the topics we will cover in this post:

• What you need to achieve with a proposal
• 8 ways to create the perfect proposal
• The 12 different types of proposal
• The real secret behind a successful proposal
• How to use Process Street to write your winning proposals

Ok, let’s go!

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